1

I have downloaded a file called Unitrends-Free-VMware-Installer and also a VMware-UF-10.4.1-3.OVA

Is the OVA tied to the Unitrends-Free-VMware-Installer?

I have vSphere 6.7 running and want to backup the VMs to a Shared Folder on a Windows 2016 Server.

Is this possible?

Also, what is the max number of VMs or total size allowed in the free backup?

thanks

8 Spice ups
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It depends when you got the download, as i recall the limit is not guest count, but backup size of 1TB.

@katie ​

@Unitrends ​

1 Spice up
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I think it’s not backup size, but VM size. You can backup VM’s up to 1Tb (0.5Tb plus 0.5 more after registration). i.e., you can have one VM with 1Tb Hard Drive but only 200Mb used, it counts as the full 1Tb backup for Unitrends Free

1 Spice up
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thanks for the info on the size…i downloaded the file last month …v10

But, can you read the first part of the question again with regard to the files.

What is used for the install?

and

can i use a shared folder as a target fro the backups?

thanks

5

Guessing the first one is for Hyper-V the latter is for VMware - but that is a guess.

One has to assume that since you downloaded them, you noted what you was downloading on the download page.

You can backup to any location visible

6

Site says

NOTE: If you are running ESXI Free, you MUST use the OVA here.

Otherwise i am guessing the EXE allows installation via the API, for paid versions.

Which it looks like it does

You only need one, depending on if you pay for ESXi or not, if you use ESXi free, you need to install the OVA

7

I went to the below site and downloaded Unitrends-Free-VMware-Installer https://pages.unitrends.com/uf/spicy-uf

https://pages.unitrends.com/uf/spicy-uf

We have three ESXi Servers running vSphere 6.7 Standard and vCenter 6.7

Can I use a CIFS share that is a Windows 2016 Server folder?

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If you have a paid setup, use the EXE to install your Unitrends.

For the paid unitrends you can backup to any location, CIFS, USB, NFS, FTP etc, for the free one, i believe backups must be on the appliance itself.

1 Spice up
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thanks…i only have the free version…

if someone verify if it is possible to use CIFS i would appreciate it

i really don’t want to spend the time setting it up if it does not support CIFS

we do have an NFS setup connected to the ESXi host as a datastorre.

i don’t see it as a good option if you have to store the backups of the VMs on the same datastore as the Backup VM

10

It’s a free offering for spiceheads, likely designed for use in their labs, most likely so it can be trialed before deciding if it’s worth buying or not.

Also note, the license is only for 1 year NFR,

11

i am wondering if the version i downloaded is the one spoken about at the below link, which seems to say up to 2TB of backup is free?

"We still offer our Spiceworks Edition of Unitrends Free. It protects up to 2TB of production data from VMware, Hyper-V, & Windows clients. Does that not meet your needs?

The biggest difference between this and the NFR edition that we offered about 4 years ago to Spiceheads is the way that it’s licensed - the NFR edition included protection for 4 clients, while this edition doesn’t limit the number of clients you can protect, only the amount of production data that you can protect. All free users get support through our online support community, which can be found here.

This edition includes a 10 year free support contract, so there will be no renewals next year to worry about. I assume that it will still be free in 10 years, but that’s something that I hate to commit to since you never know what the future will bring. "

12

The link you posted earlier clearly states 1TB at the top of the page in Orange, the actual value i would go with.

If you are talking about the renewal period, that may have changed, but it’s still a free product and will have limitations - the best thing to do, to know, is install it.

You’ve already taken the time to download it and have a discussion about it, this time could have been used to get you the answer for yourself.

13

The storage for Unitrends has to be native storage (at leas as far as VMware is concernned). You add a datastore to the virtual machine, and Unitrends will use it. Since VMware can’t use CIFS as a datastore, that won’t work. But I think you can set up Server 2016 as an NFS server using whatever the modern equivalent of Services For Unix is. In our case, our Unitrends backups live on a NAS that we can grab if the proverbial fit hits the shan.